Hello and thank you for stopping by on our tour stop for THE KNOWING by Sharon Cameron for Rock Star Book Tours. I read THE FORGETTING last year and really enjoyed it and was excited to join the tour this year for it’s sequel THE KNOWING. A story set far into the future where one’s truths are written and one person who wants to unravel her frayed memories.
Make sure to a check out our interview with Sharon and don’t forget to enter the contest at the end of this post. Good Luck!!
Title: THE KNOWING
Author: Sharon Cameron
Pub. Date: October 14, 2017
Publisher: Scholastic Press
Pages: 448
Formats: Hardcover, eBook, audiobook
Find it: Amazon, Audible, B&N, iBooks, TBD, Goodreads
Samara doesn’t forget. And she isn’t the only one. Safe underground in the city of New Canaan, she lives in a privileged world free from the Forgetting. Yet she wonders if she really is free, with the memories that plague her and secrets that surround her. Samara is determined to unearth the answers, even if she must escape to the old, cursed city of Canaan to find them.
Someone else is on their way to Canaan too . . . a spaceship from Earth is heading toward the planet, like a figment of the city’s forgotten past. Beck is traveling with his parents, researchers tasked with finding the abandoned settlement effort. When Beck is stranded without communication, he will find more in Canaan than he was ever trained for. What will happen when worlds and memories, beliefs — and truths — collide?
About Book 1:
Title: THE FORGETTING
Author: Sharon Cameron
Pub. Date: September 13, 2016
Publisher: Scholastic Press
Pages: 416
Formats: Hardcover, eBook
Find it: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, iBooks, Goodreads
What isn’t written, isn’t remembered. Even your crimes.
Nadia lives in the city of Canaan, where life is safe and structured, hemmed in by white stone walls and no memory of what came before. But every twelve years the city descends into the bloody chaos of the Forgetting, a day of no remorse, when each person’s memories – of parents, children, love, life, and self – are lost. Unless they have been written.
In Canaan, your book is your truth and your identity, and Nadia knows exactly who hasn’t written the truth. Because Nadia is the only person in Canaan who has never forgotten.
But when Nadia begins to use her memories to solve the mysteries of Canaan, she discovers truths about herself and Gray, the handsome glassblower, that will change her world forever. As the anarchy of the Forgetting approaches, Nadia and Gray must stop an unseen enemy that threatens both their city and their own existence – before the people can forget the truth. And before Gray can forget her.
INTERVIEW with SHARON CAMERON
Can you tell us a little about The Forgetting and now its amazing sequel The
Knowing?
Of course! Though I would describe The Knowing as a companion novel to The
Forgetting rather than a sequel, since they don’t have to be read in a certain order. The
Forgetting is about a city of people who forget everything every twelve years, and how
this complete disconnect with their own histories (and therefore themselves) plays
havoc with lives and an entire world. The Knowing is exactly the opposite, a city where
the people physically cannot forget anything. So not only are minds overloaded with
information, but every emotion, every experience, is as fresh as the day it was first felt.
So love is forever, even if you love the wrong person, and so is emotional pain. Nothing
can fade or go away. Both books are asking the same question, but from the flip side of
the coin: What makes us who we are? Are we who we were born to be, or are we the
result of our memories and experiences? And do we have to be defined by those
memories, or can we let them go?
Was it easier to return to the world and to have Samara navigate this new
landscape?
I think returning to a world in a book is actually harder in some ways than creating a
new one. With new worlds, there are no rules but the ones you make up. But when
you’re returning to a world, your story has to abide by rules that are already set. Which
leads perfectly into the answer to your next question!
This is the part of science fiction I really enjoy, the creation of new planets and
civilizations. What was your favorite part about writing these novels?
Definitely creating the civilization. It’s not that often that you get a chance to return to a
society you’ve created, and figure out how every aspect of that society–custom, culture,
language, politics– might have developed hundreds of years later. This is probably the
Tolkien in me, but creating such a deep history is a thrill.
What real-life inspirations did you draw from for the world-building in your
books?
You know, I’m really just a sneaky historical writer, because everything I write (even
science fiction!) is based on things that have happened before. For The Forgetting I did
a lot of research on utopias and how they’ve gone wrong (fascinating!) and for The
Knowing I looked very hard at the mysterious, lost colony of Roanoke in North Carolina,
specifically at the way human curiosity keeps the legend of such places alive for years.
But my biggest inspirations came from watching videos of people whose memory
functions were either super high or super low. Watching how they navigate their world,
and the trauma these conditions can cause, showed me how to build an entire society.
What is your preferred method for readers to get in touch with you?
Full disclosure, I am terrible at social media, like really bad, but I adore hearing from
readers. You can reach me at all of these places, and I will answer you!
Twitter: @CameronSharonE
Facebook: facebook.com/sharoncameronbooks
sharoncameronbooks.com
And of course, Goodreads!
About Sharon:
Sharon Cameron was awarded the 2009 Sue Alexander Most Promising New Work Award by the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators for her debut novel, The Dark Unwinding. When not writing Sharon can be found thumbing dusty tomes, shooting her longbow, or indulging in her lifelong search for secret passages. She lives with her family in Nashville, Tennessee.
Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads | YouTube
Giveaway Details:
3 winners will receive a finished copy of THE KNOWING. US Only.
Rafflecopter Code:
Rafflecopter link:
http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/e2389ba2652/?
Tour Schedule
Week One:
10/9/2017- Tales of the Ravenous Reader– Interview 10/10/2017- QUITE THE NOVEL IDEA– Review 10/11/2017- Feed Your Fiction Addiction– Review 10/12/2017- The Eater of Books!– Excerpt 10/13/2017- Two Chicks on Books– Excerpt
Week Two:
10/16/2017- Betwixt the Pages– Review 10/17/2017- YA Books Central– Excerpt 10/18/2017- The Book Nut– Review 10/19/2017- Here’s to Happy Endings– Review 10/20/2017- YA and Wine– Guest Post